There’s no question that smartphones and tablets have become by far the biggest gaming platform in the world, surpassing dedicated gaming devices with the sheer size of their user base and gaming software on offer. However, it is worth considering that the Google Play store is an environment which creates only a few gaming mega-hits per year, with many hopeful, worthy titles quickly fading into obscurity.

For an independent game developer, these struggles for exposure are often insurmountable. Google’s openness and transparency regarding app download figures provides a sobering — and often depressing — insight into these difficulties, with many games boasting a shocking lack of players. Here, we have collated 7 very worthwhile gaming experiences on Android that have most definitely flown under your — and almost everyone else’s — radar, but are well worth playing.

Google’s Play Game Services were heralded as a big level up for Android gaming when they were announced back in May. Finally we had a universal system and an easy-to-implement API for tracking achievements and leaderboards across games, carrying saved games across devices (cloud save), and enjoying real-time multiplayer with friends — even on iOS, if the App Store version also integrates Play Game Services. And it’s all accessible through an app, just like Game Center on iOS.

But you can’t just pull up a filter on the Play Store to uncover Play Game Services-supported apps, and finding them can at times feel like wielding arcane arts. So Android.AppStorm’s editorial boss lady [Ed note: that would be me – Rita] asked me to round up a big list of the best. Here are more than 40 games that use at least one of the new services. I’ve included a note on each one to say which Play game services it utilizes, for your convenience.

You’ve probably come across this problem many times. You want to play the hot new mobile game that you just discovered with your friend, but he or she has an iPhone. What do you do? If you’re lucky, you both pick up a copy of the game and it works — you can connect and play together. But more often than not, you wind up disappointed. It might be available for both platforms, but for some reason you just can’t cross streams.

So you vow to keep an eye out for some great games — new or old — that will let you play with your iOS-loving friends. We shouldn’t have to deal with iOS and Android segregation in this day and age, where solutions for implementing cross-platform multiplayer are plentiful. Here are nearly 40 games that set the example and do it right.(more…)

With Android 4.0+, Google introduced the Holo scheme of design principles that promoted clean and digitally authentic design. Many third-party apps have since adopted these design themes, but the phenomenon isn’t exclusive to just social networking clients and calculators. In this roundup, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen awesome Holo-inspired games that you can grab for your Android handset from the Play Store today!

Adventure games once ruled the roost of gaming, dominating sales charts in the pre-Doom landscape. There was something special about graphic adventures in the late 80s and early 90s, which still resonates strongly with people today — just look at the frenzied excitement that surrounded former LucasArts (now Double Fine) designer extraordinaire Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter to make a new game in this spirit.

The touch screen happens to be perfectly suited for the classic adventure format, so I set off in search of Android titles that hark back to the genre’s point-and-click roots. Here’s what I found.

They go by all kinds of different names — nonogram, picross, hanjie, griddlers, paint by numbers, and more — but there’s something magical about picross games. Like a cross between minesweeper and sudoku, it’s a pure test of logic. You find the hidden image by filling squares on a grid, given clues for how many — both altogether and in succession — are in each row and column.

It takes only seconds to learn, but you could spend your whole life mastering the formula, and it’s incredibly addictive — not only have I wiled away many an hour, but I got my sister-in-law, brother, and girlfriend hooked at one time or another. And I’ve scoured the Play Store for the best in picross action on Android. Here are my 10 favorites.(more…)

Games. We’ve already covered and rounded up a lot of them for Android, but today we’re taking a bit of a different look at gaming on our beloved mobile operating system. In this roundup, we’ll take a look at apps for keeping up-to-date with the gaming industry, apps to help you out during gameplay and other apps to stay engaged with your favourite gaming franchises when you’re not actually playing. (more…)

Compared to iOS in the distant past, Android wasn’t really that much of a gaming platform, as it lacked the diversity of apps and the more powerful hardware to play them on. Now however, Android has a massive 25 billion downloads to date, a figure Apple hit only half a year ago, showing how much Google’s ecosystem has developed as more and more people begin to use the software.

But what I’m mostly interested in are racing games. Being both an iOS and Android user, I found my fair share of quality racers present on the iOS App Store, so I was curious to see if the Play Store could match up. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most if not all of my favorite iOS racers were here on Android, as well as some games I hadn’t seen before. Below, I will take a look at the 10 Android racing games that were a cut above the rest.

Mario is almost an institution these days, such is his fame, popularity, and brand recognition. But you need a Nintendo game console or handheld in order to get in on the fun. So what are you to do when you have a hankering for some Super Mario action on your Android phone or tablet? Why, you try one of these games!

I’ve rounded up five of the best Android titles that replicate the run-and-jump style and substance of Super Mario games from the NES and Super Nintendo eras. Go ahead and take these Mario-wannabes for a spin.(more…)

Board games remain some of the time-tested classics of the gaming world today, despite the advances in technology. What’s even better about them is that you can get a whole bunch of them right there on your Android device.

The digitization of board games is an incredible feat, but not all were ported successfully; this roundup contains only what we think are the best digital alternatives while on the fly or away from the real thing.